God is pleased when our worship is practical. The Bible
says, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to
God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”^11 Why does God want
your body? Why doesn’t he say, “Offer your spirit”? Because
without your body you can’t do anything on this planet. In
eternity you will receive a new, improved, upgraded body, but
while you’re here on earth, God says, “Give me what you’ve
got!” He’s just being practical about worship.
You have heard people say, “I can’t make it to the meeting
tonight, but I’ll be with you in spirit.” Do you know what that
means? Nothing. It’s worthless! As long as you’re on earth, your
spirit can only be where your body is. If your body isn’t there,
neither are you.
In worship we are to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices.”
Now, we usually associate the concept of “sacrifice” with
something dead, but God wants you to be a living sacrifice. He
wants you to livefor him! However, the problem with a living
sacrifice is that it can crawl off the
altar, and we often do that. We
sing, “Onward, Christian Soldiers”
on Sunday, then go AWOL on
Monday.
In the Old Testament, God took
pleasure in the many sacrifices of
worship because they foretold of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the
cross. Now God is pleased with different sacrifices of worship:
thanksgiving, praise, humility, repentance, offerings of money,
prayer, serving others, and sharing with those in need.^12
Real worship costs. David knew this and said: “I will not offer to
the Lord my God sacrifices that have cost me nothing.”^13
One thing worship costs us is our self-centeredness. You cannot
exalt God and yourself at the same time. You don’t worship to be
seen by others or to please yourself. You deliberately shift the
focus off yourself.
PURPOSE #1: You Were Planned for God’s Pleasure 105
Real worship is rooted
in the Word.